THAUMANTIAS HEMISPH^RICA. 49 



13. Thaumantias Thompsoni, Forbes (1841). 



Plate XI, Fig. 5. 



E. Forbes, in Annals of Natural History, April, 1841, p. 88, pi. 1, f. 6. 



Among the most phosphorescent of the smaller Medusae on the coast of Cornwall, and 

 elsewhere in the south, is a little Thattmantias, which several years ago (in 1840) was met 

 with, for the first time, by Mr. W. Thompson, Mr. R. Ball, and myself, in Clifden and 

 Roundstone Bays, on the coast of Connemara, in Ireland. When irritated, it gives out a 

 brilliant light from the bulbs of its tentacula. 



The umbrella of Thaumantias Thompsoni is hemispherical and rather depressed, smooth 

 and colourless. It measures about a quarter of an inch across. Round its margin are sixteen 

 (3x4-j-4) white tentacula, springing from rather large yellow tubercles, each bearing a very 

 small, dark red or nearly black ocellus. These tentacles, when highly magnified, appear 

 annulated, and their bulbs distinctly exhibit an ocellus separate from an otolitic mass. The 

 sub-umbrella is rather more depressed than the umbrella. On its sides, rather more than 

 half way down, are the four reproductive glands, ovate, and of a clear yellow colour. In the 

 centre is the small, rather slender, quadrangular stomach, also yellow ; it terminates in four 

 triangular lips, margined with a thick band of fibrous cells. 



Plate XI, f. 5, a and b, represents this species magnified ; 5, c, one of the ovaries full of 

 egg, and the bulb of a tentacle, greatly magnified ; 5, d, part of the margin with three ten- 

 tacula ; 5, e, a lip, with its border of fibrous cells. 



14. Thaumantias hemisphcerica (sp.), Miiller (1776). 

 Plate VIII, Fig. 2. 



Synonyms. Medusa hemispharica. Gronovius, Acta Helv., 438, t. iv, f. 37 ( 1 760). 



O. F. Miiller, Prod. Faun. Dan., No. 2822 (1776). 



O. F. ^Miiller, Zool. Dan., pi. 7, f. 1-4 (1788), 



(figl Cop. in Enc. Meth., pi. 93, f. 8-10.) 



Lin., Syst. Nat. Cur. Gmelin, p. 1098 (1 789). 



Modeer, Kong. Vet. Ac. Nya Kand. vol. xii, 



p. 251 (1791.) 

 Oceania hemisphcerica. Peron, Ann. de Mus., vol. xiv, p. 347 (1809). 

 Medusa hemisphcerica, var. lucida. Macartney, Phil. Trans. (1810), 



p. 264, pi. 14, f. 3. 

 Geryonia hemisphcerica. Fleming, Brit. Animals, p. 500 (1828). 

 Thaumantias hemisphcerica. Eschscholtz, Syst. der Acal., p. 103 (1829). 



Blainville, Man. d'Act., p. 285 (1834). 



(Lamarck), An. sans Vert., 2d Ed., 



p. 162 (1840). 

 Medusa {Geryonia) hemisphcerica. Thompson, Annals of Nat. Hist. 



vol. V, p. 248 (1840). 

 Thaumantias hemisphcerica. Lesson, Acal., p. 335 (1843). 



